Free A Cowboy for Mom by Honor James Page B

zeros than he could
contemplate without getting light-headed, they were stumped as to what to do.
    They were now
co-owners and majority shareholders in the companies that their great-grandfather
and grandfather had started and kept growing respectively. Thankfully, there
was a board of directors and   Carson and Bev only had to attend two meetings each year,one in
March and the other in mid-September. They went, listened to prospective ideas,
spent a couple of days talking it out as far as pros and cons, and then either gave
the “green light” or not. They would also sign all the paperwork that no one
else had the authority to sign.
    This was also the
only time they employed their personal lawyers because no one but   a lawyer could
understand the crap that was passed along to them to sign. Legal jargon was not Carson ’s strong
suit. He knew horses, cows, bulls, and the in’s and out’s of ranch life. His
sister did, as well, but these days she was more into managing her art gallery
than farming. Neither of them understood legal matters, so they’d found a firm
they could trust through good, old-fashioned determination and their own gut
feelings.
    They also watched
everything very, very carefully. While they might not understand the talk, they
knew the almighty dollar, and recognized when they were being yanked around.
That much their mother had taught them in regard to managing finances ,and it was something they utilized on a regular basis.
    He rinsed out his
mug, then grabbed his thermos and the breakfast
burrito he’d made the night before. Heading out into the chill of the morning,
he snagged a heavy down jacket and shrugged into it as the two cattle dogs came
round for their morning scratch. “Daisy, Duke, how you both doing this
morning?” he asked them as they sat down at his feet.
    Grinning when they
eyed his burrito, he shook his head. “Not for you two mutts,” he said. “Come
on, let’s get to the barn and get busy.” He’d heat the burrito up in there and eat
while he started feeding the horses. The hands would be around later in the
morning to clean the stalls and work all the horses through their paces.
    “So, I hear tell
that we’ve got company coming out,” he commented to the dogs as he let them and
himself into the barn. “Couple of city slickers wanting to
learn to be cowboys for some movie or another. Bet you two biscuits each
they think it’s a lot easier than it really is. No? No takers?” he chuckled.
“Didn’t think so,” he murmured. Heading into the tack room, he stuck his
breakfast in the microwave and dug out the dog’s food dishes.
    Filling them up
and changing out the water, he left them to their breakfast as he collected
his. He sat on a hay bale and watched them chow down and had to wonder yet
again just how the ever-loving hell he’d let his old buddy Mathew talk him into
helping out these Hollywood folks for three
weeks. Oh, right, his evil baby sister and her fucking
threats to come live with him again, despite the fact that her career and her
husband were in New York .
If it weren’t for that promise of hers to lay the hell off him, he was a grown
man after all as he’d pointed out, there wasn’t likely a force on the planet
that would have made him agree to Mathew’s screwy-ass plan. “Hope they’re ready
to use muscles they never knew existed,” he muttered.
    Oh yeah, he was going to work them. Grinning, he snickered.
If they didn’t pass out before their heads hit the pillows each night that
first week, he’d eat his hat.

Chapter Two
     
    It had been fifteen years since she had been back home, a
very long time since she stepped back onto the streets she ran as a kid. Oh,
she hadn’t forgotten one single thing about the town, and it was still the same
little town it was when she was thrown out of her house so long ago. No, this
homecoming was not one that she wanted, that was for sure. This homecoming was…well,
it was a bitch . Utter, complete,